Chapter 7 Construction of Pastures

  After waiting until the slaves had finished eating and resting for a while, seeing that the sky had already darkened, Li Zhēng called Zhang Shan over to his side and gave him some instructions.

  Most of the slaves are barely clothed, and with the temperature dropping lower and lower, it's absolutely impossible to continue like this. So we must prepare winter clothes for them.

  Secondly, there are enough laborers now, but the tools needed for building pastures and some daily necessities are not enough, so they must be purchased again.

  Furthermore, whether it is Li Zhong's ambition or to adapt to the current environment, the grassland itself must have armed forces. But now, apart from a knife at his waist, Li Zhong has no other weapons. How can he protect the grassland? This also needs to be bought!

  Weapons are restricted items, and it's not easy to buy them in bulk on the Central Plains. But in Liangzhou, it's not that difficult. So Li Jing didn't want to trouble the Fu family with this matter.

  These three things involve a lot of money and require trustworthy people to preside over them. For Li Zhēn, the most trustworthy person now is probably only Zhang Shan.

  "Clothes should be bought to keep warm, of course, if they're too expensive then there's nothing you can do, it's up to you. As for tools, buying three to five dozen sets wouldn't be excessive, and also buy more salt and pepper. As for weapons...” Li Zhēn said, pausing for a moment, "Just buy a batch of iron spearheads, the spear handles can be made from local materials, wooden handles will have to do for now. If possible, it would be great to get our hands on some bows and crossbows..."

  Zhang Shan listened and said with difficulty: "Clothing, tools, salt, and iron spearheads are easy to obtain, but sir, bows and crossbows are unlikely. The imperial court prohibits the flow of such weapons into civilian hands. Although Liangzhou's situation is different from that of the Central Plains, it is unlikely that we can purchase large quantities of bows and crossbows in civilian circles."

  Li Zheng nodded slightly: "Do your best. If direct purchase doesn't work, take another look to see if you can invite some bow-making craftsmen - can't buy it, make it yourself!"

  Zhang Shan nodded in agreement.

  "It's a new venture and there are many troubles. You'll have to put in some effort soon. As for the money needed, someone will bring it over tomorrow."

  "My lord's words carry weight, I will not disappoint you."

  Having handed over everything, Li Zheng waved his hand at Zhang Shan, shouted an order, led the troops, loaded up the grain and fodder, and took advantage of the night to head directly to the pasture.

  The next morning, when the tribal soldiers sent by Fu's family to escort the grain and grass returned, Li Zhēn dispatched Zhao Wu to personally deliver gold cakes to Zhang Shan. He took over Zhao Wu's job and arranged for the construction of the pasture.

  Last night, more than 370 people were brought back, plus the 30 sent by Fu's family, totaling over 400 people. Among them, 150 young and strong Hu people were separated by Li Zhēng into 50 people. After these 50 people ate and drank enough, they were divided into five groups, and team leaders were appointed based on the recommendations of most people, and then sent to the surrounding areas as scouts, monitoring all movements within a radius of ten miles.

  And from all of them, fifty people who were most familiar with this area were selected, and team leaders were assigned to go to the grasslands to find wild animal herds and make records.

  The remaining three hundred or so people, except for the elderly who could not do hard labor, weak women and children, were divided into four groups according to their needs.

  One group was responsible for quarrying rocks at the foot of a nearby hill, one group was responsible for transporting the quarried rocks to the grassland, one group was responsible for building stables and dwellings, and the last group, led by Li Zhēn himself, built buildings related to the system.

  As for those nearly fifty units that cannot work, children are not mentioned, the elderly and weak women are responsible for the food needs of the entire grassland.

  After everything was arranged properly, Li Zhēng gave the order and the entire grassland turned into a busy construction site, with everyone working diligently on their respective tasks.

  Because it takes some time to quarry the rocks, apart from the first group, the other three groups went to the forest under Li Zhēng's leadership to cut down trees.

  According to Li Zhēng's requirements, building a house requires a large amount of stone, but wood is also indispensable.

  A day of intense activity quickly passed. Although it was just the preliminary work, the results were not small. The stone and wood materials have been harvested a lot, and from the next day on, the construction of the entire lawn will be formalized.

  In the following days, a steady stream of grain was transported to the pasture at night and safely stored in the first granary built.

  Zhang Shan has procured all kinds of necessities from Lingzhou and they are all in place.

  The slaves all wore thick new clothes, and the wax yellow on their faces also decreased significantly, showing a hint of ruddiness.

  Smile, begins to bloom. Hope, is sprouting.

  More than ten days later, under the hard work of Hessdalen, rows of neat stone walls and wooden roofs rose from the foot of the mountain, which were built successfully first. Although it still looks simple, from this day on, everyone no longer needs to camp out, and they are assigned to solid, dry, clean and simple houses.

  At the moment when they were allocated houses, many people's eyes welled up with tears.

  This is their new home!

  When building houses, Li Zhong also referred to some impressions in his memory and gave his opinions. The drainage facilities and convenient toilets were unified and done well from the beginning, and the cleanliness and hygiene aspects were done well from the start.

  While the housing construction was successful, a systematic carrier building also took shape.

  Although the building has just laid its foundation, it can already be roughly seen that its scale is considerable. In terms of area, this building covers more than half an acre, with a foundation extending one zhang underground, and all floors are completely paved with stone slabs. Next, the construction of walls will begin.

  Time flies like water, and in the blink of an eye, another month has passed, and October is approaching. The temperature is getting lower and lower, and every morning when I get up, there are frost marks on the ground. The dry grass on the ground was frozen stiff by the frost, and it crackled when stepped on.

  The results of this month have been tremendous from start to finish.

  The residential buildings were completed early, and the rows of solid stables were all completed. Most importantly, the system carrier building was also completed on this day with its first building.

  In addition, in seven more secluded and open mountain valleys, watchtowers were quietly built.

  So far, only the remaining system carrier and the fence that needs to be built in a more open area around the pasture in Li Zhong's plan have not been constructed.

  All of these have been planned in detail, except that the system carrier needs to be built strictly according to the drawings provided by the system, and nothing else requires Li Zhēn's personal supervision, Zhao Wǔ is enough.

  Now Li Zhong is considering a more long-term plan.

  As expected, the basic construction of the pasture will be fully completed before next spring. So by early next year at the latest, Li Zhēng's power in his hands will begin to expand.

  But before this, we must solve the population problem.

  Population is the greatest resource, the more the better. Although there are refugees everywhere these days, Li Zhong's family can no longer support any more people.

  Not to mention continuing to recruit refugees, just talking about the people in the pasture now, Li Zhēng can't afford to support them for too long.

  So it must be open source!

  The land surrounding the south of the meadow and outside the forest is basically all unowned wasteland. If it were to be reclaimed, there would be no resistance. And at this time, it just so happens to be the right season for planting winter wheat.

  The construction of the pasture can be done in stages, and it doesn't require so many people to work at the same time. So Li Zheng is considering dividing some labor to open up wasteland, preparing to plant crops, with the goal of being self-sufficient by next year.

  In addition to staple foods, vegetables and fruits are also essential.

  After considering these things clearly, Li Zhong turned his thoughts back to the system.

  The carrier required for the current system function has been built into the first building, and the function of fusing and cultivating war riders can be attached to the carrier. After completion, the fusion and cultivation of war riders can begin.

  At least two suitable animals are needed to cultivate the war horse, and at this stage, horses are absolutely indispensable. However, there are only two horses in the pasture now, one of which is Zhangshan's horse that can barely pass, while the other is a poor-quality horse given by Fushi as a friendly gift, with too few numbers and completely not meeting Li Zhēn's requirements.

  To know that the fusion of Warhorses is random. Heaven knows how many fusions it takes to get a satisfactory Warhorse! Two horses? What's the use?

  Moreover, the better and stronger the animal used for fusion is, the better the warhorse obtained will be. Inferior horses simply do not meet the requirements.

  So at the beginning of the construction of the pasture, Li Zhēng sent a team to explore the surrounding wild animal groups. Now, there have been some significant results.

  The environment of this era is too good, it's no exaggeration to say that wild animals are everywhere.

  Within fifty miles around the grassland, two wild horse herds were discovered! The activity range of these two wild horse herds is north of the grassland, and their habitats are in the two valleys of this Helan Mountain branch.

  Apart from the wild horses that are relatively common in grasslands, a small group of Przewalski's gazelles was unexpectedly found! What a pleasant surprise!

  The qingniu animal was actually famous early on. When Laojun Li Er went west out of the Hangu Pass, he sat down and there was a qingniu. Some people may think this thing is a mythical creature, but the qingniu is actually similar to a rhinoceros.

  People often put rhinoceros and tapir together, calling them "rhino-tapir".

  The rhinoceros has a massive physique, with iron-like keratinized skin all over its body, and a single horn on the nose that points forward at an angle, making it highly lethal. This is a nearly invulnerable creature with almost no natural enemies.

  But for Li Zhēn, Qīng Chì is a very good choice that combines war and riding.

  Apart from the Tibetan antelope, there are also wild yaks, mountain goats, deer and wild boars that inhabit this region.

  Even tiger, leopard and bear tracks were found in the mountains!

  To most people, these ferocious beasts are terrifying. But to Li Zhēng, they are a rare resource.

  He has already been thinking about how to capture these guys alive.

  After settling down in the pasture, Li Zhong would get up every morning and go to the top of the hill. Maybe it was to watch the sunrise, or maybe he wanted to feel the chill of being at a high place. At this time, his subordinates would not come to disturb him.

  He exhaled a mouthful of white air, gazing at the red sun rising slowly in the east. Li Zhēng stretched his limbs and loosened up his muscles before casually walking down the hill.